You’re right, I’m guilty of oversimplification based on out of date information. I last worked in that field 20 years ago. I should have stuck to the still-accurate point that privatization has long been prevalent when it comes to licensing in Ontario, so it’s not a new thing this government is doing. Driver testing was provincially-run, but it was fully privatized in the early 2000s. Thanks for the fact-checking.

Service Ontario already was private, and always has been. I don’t approve of this move, but only because it corporatizes a small business model.

I hate to break it to you but ServiceOntario was always private. The vast majority of serviceontario locations were in effect small businesses with one person designated as the government agent. Been that way for at least 50 years. Those people working at those offices are not government employees, not members of a union and most certainly not well paid. They are just employees of a small business, no different than someone that works at a bar or a restaurant, other than having to know a lot of government rules and processes.

So what the government is doing is corpratizing what used to be a moderately profitable small business.

I should also add that those small business owners had to pay all the costs of the business including the initial renovations to meet government requirements. So that definitely is a case of corporate welfare for Staples.

Source: I worked at various Service Ontario locations before it was branded that way, for 15 years or so.

They basically created a formula out of thin air. Using the same formula Ontario would be entitled to something like 68% of the fund.

I don’t know anyone that discusses pool temps in anything but imperial